Heavy rain leaves 250 families homeless

Over 250 families from 16 villages in Dowa district are seeking shelter after heavy rains and strong winds destroyed their houses and other property.

Heavy rains on 24th December, last year and 2nd January this year affected 16 out of the 27 villages in the area of Traditional Authority Msakambewa, resulting into villagers losing their maize flour, kitchen utensils and livestock.

Speaking in an interview with Malawi24, executive committee member of T/A Msakambewa Area Development Committee Fatness Majomeka said the number of affected households is likely to increase.

Majomeka commended the District Environmental Officer, who is also Desk Officer for Disaster Management Affairs, Yusuf Laki in the company of Ward Councilor for Msakambewa East, Martin Luka Phiri and other officials for visiting some of the affected houses to appreciate the scale of the damage in the area.

She appealed for immediate relief items such as food, plastic sheets and chlorine, observing that many toilets have been destroyed posing a threat of an impending outbreak of Cholera in the affected areas.
The woman said it is by God’s grace that no death was reported since the houses collapsed in the middle of the night when people were sleeping.

One of the affected person, Chimwanza Wikisoni said he lost 200Kgs of maize flour as a result of the rains saying many people in the area get their maize milled prior to the rainy season, since transport to mills which are very far is a challenge.

Some of the heavily affected villages in the area are Muyesakumva, Chikudzo, Mkaka, Chimphuno and Chimpoza.